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Champion pacer Leap To Fame looks set to atone for his defeat in last year’s Victoria Cup when he tuned up for this year’s race with a soft win in the Smoken Up Sprint.

Leap To Fame was narrowly beaten into third place behind Act Now and Catch A Wave in last year's edition of the race.

Sent out a $1.35 favorite, Leap To Fame was given time to balance up from his outside draw before Grant Dixon opted to work forward and wrest the lead off Mach Dan with 1100 metres to travel.

A rustling of the reins by Dixon on turning for home was all the son of Bettors Delight needed to surge clear in the home straight scoring by three and a half metres on the line from Mach Dan and Curly James in a mile rate of 1:51.2.

Dixon conceded the win was relatively painless.

"It all panned out really good in the end, it wasn't too hard for him and he was able to get the job done, "Dixon said.

 Dixon said his pre-race summation that Mach Dan would find the front came to fruition.

"You never take anything for granted but when we left the gate he (Mach Dan) looked as if he was going to clear the inside ones and at least we could roll to the death under a hold without having to open him up," he said.

Second up from a spell, Dixon expects Leap To Fame to be near peak fitness for next week's assignment.

"He normally gets better with each run and hopefully he will just keep improving a bit," he said.